Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace Episode 1 - Bobble Reviews

Game of Laplace is actually based on the works of mystery novel author Edogawa Ranpo. Now that's a sophisticated idea to sip tea to. The mystery chronicled in the first few episodes is an adaption of "The Human Chair," published, as Wikipedia tells me, in 1925. It also takes place in a modern time with a very modern style, and depending on what kind of person you are, that's an idea either to sparkle with interested delight at or howl at in sobbing rage.

"WHAT were they THIN-kiiiing!?" - theoretical reaction of someone else

We are presented with images. A skull. The same skull, closer up. A butterfly in a drab world mostly comprised of faded silhouettes. A student leaving class. Bright crosswalk signals, a highway bridge, an awful doll in the window. A journey. And an important quote that tells us that the true world is the world of dreams.

........Ugh.

The butterfly catches the eye of our POV, who seems to be your ordinary schoolgirl. She follows the butterfly through the drab world, but before she knows it the butterfly is flying away behind her, and the dream ends. An exciting new day awaits!

YEAH – wait – uh – hmmmm.

The student wakes up in the middle of a bloody classroom, armed with a hacksaw blade, facing the thing that once was the homeroom teacher. His body's been contorted into a strange shape. You could almost call it...a human...chair.

So the case is on! Unimportant students, who still look like silhouettes, mumble. Caution tape goes up. Investigators pile in. And obviously, the suspicion piles on our main character's shoulders.

Please look upset.

A few key things are revealed:

•  Our main character is named Kobayashi.
• Kobayashi handles stress like a pro. We could all learn from her.
• Or should I say we could all learn from him — Kobayashi's a dude, yo! Yeah, I know, totally bonkers, right?
• Every non-important character is a silhouette...

Even when they talk!

...until the instant they become at least somewhat important.

Oh, hey, Nakamura! Didn't know it was you, buddy! Go fix your eyes.

So, in short order, we are introduced to the clueless but nigh-unflappable protagonist-slash-prime-suspect, the purple-haired student council president whom you see above – who's also apparently a detective – an idealistic inspector, that perpetually-dopey detective, and the hot hotshot young detective who takes mouthfulls of pills on the job. They take Koby in for questioning, but that doesn't lead them anywhere. Oh well. Let 'im go back to class. Time to return to a comedic school life!

You said it!

Also, this is their new teacher.

When school lets out, Kobe tells Purple some cryptic words: he's going to his house. Purple follows, and they go to a mysterious house at the top of a high-rise. Whose crib is it? Why, none other than that of the whiz kid 17-year-old detective with the handful of pills himself...Akechi!

"How ever did you find me?" he says. "I don't even have a phone!" Kobie explains it very simply. He just looked at another investigator's phone for a split second, called the number he saw there, found out it was the number for a store that went out of business, called someone else, and learned from them that somebody lives there now, and that that somebody is also the pill-poppin' young man we see here today:

*studio audience applause*

So Akechi lets them in. That's a nice gesture.

This is what all good student council presidents say upon visiting someone's home.

Akechi's gonna let them in on a little secret: he never goes to school, yet they never count him late, because he's such a genius rookie detective that the government loves him. Purple is appalled. That's against the Constitution*! N-n...no wonder it's so top-secret! No way he's ever gonna do something so dishonorable!! But you know what? Akechi tells Purple he's gonna learn some dark secrets about this world.

Hold up. Kobayashi's got something to say too, right after he spins around on the barstools and awkwardly kicks his legs for a few moments: he wants to become...his assistant!

:'(

The ol' Kobester reveals that he could never get excited about life. Droll reality and fake fiction...it's all too boring. But you know what murder-solving is?

SO cute.

But that won't stop them from discussing the crime a little.

He has all this too? That's one swank pad.

For instance, why do people care so little about the crime, outside of stray gossip in the halls? Allegedly, it's because Akechi gamed the mass media system and told them not to cover it. It's part of his gambit to try and catch the killer by starving them of attention.

Before we leave the case of the human chair this week, the police show up! Wha!? Well, Kobee is still a suspect (and I guess that student council guy might be too), so Akechi kindly e-mailed the police. Also, that teacher who became a human chair...wasn't just a victim. He was also a murderer, perhaps even maker of the human chairs they just found in his parents' garage. Not only that, but the prints of the tools used to make these chairs...had Kobayashi's prints on them. Dunun, dun, dununun.

But there's a light at the end of the tunnel: if K. can somehow figure out whodunit, he can work for Akechi like he wants. Presumably, Purple will get nothing he especially wants from all this except his freedom.

Sweet guy.